Safety concerns at Cary bus stop

Since Wake County schools started this week, there have been numerous busing issues.

One Cary mother said she even tried to get her son's bus stop moved due to safety concerns, but had no luck.

Donna Thorpe said she brought her concerns about safety to transportation officials and Superintendent Tony Tata before school even started.

She said when school started, her frustrations grew even bigger.

So, Thorpe recorded a video of the busy traffic along the intersection of Avenue of the Estates and Ederlee Drive to show why she felt the bus stop was not safe for her 9th grader.

"There's a blind, dangerous curb there and traffic is always exceeding the speed limit here," she said.

Her son's stop was moved to the intersection this school year. The nine years before, his stop was about 150 yards in their neighborhood, Regency Park Estates, which is away from the four lanes of traffic and curve.

"I'm concerned about him standing here," Thorpe said. "I've tried making a left out of this subdivision, I've tried making a right out of this subdivision it's very dangerous."

Almost a month before school started, she and her husband contacted transportation officials about their safety concerns.

"I was told they came out and looked at this stop and deemed it's a safe stop," she said.

Thorpe said she even sent an e-mail to the superintendant.

"Somebody is not looking at the map, we've submitted maps, and we've showed the information," she said.

The first few days of school, the bus came into their neighborhood, and then made a U-turn at the stop where Thorpe's son had been picked up for the last nine years.

After turning around, the bus came back up the street and picked Thorpe's son up at what she called an unsafe stop. She sent her video to transportation officials.

"School has started, all these people with worse off problems, and they are like you are not a priority anymore, this is a priority this is an unsafe stop," she said.

I brought Thorpe's concerns to Wake County. I never heard back from anyone, but Thorpe did get a welcome call -- her son's stop was changed back to where it was before.

"Thank you," Thorpe said.

A victory for Thorpe and her son, but she said she was very frustrated that she spent more than three weeks trying to get it resolved. She was also frustrated with what she called the lack of response from Wake County officials.

Wake County has been flooded with complaints over the busing system since the start of school Monday. Earlier this week, Tata said safety is their top priority.

The school board plans to address the issue at their meeting next week.